Heretofore, when a desired fabric is to be knitted by a knitting machine which is disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,608,642 or 4,768,357, for example, an operator must set control data instructing contents for driving a knitting machine mechanism such as knitting needles to be used, moving directions and distances of the needles, and the like, as knitting information.
However, in the knitting machine taught by U.S. Pat. No. 4,768,357, test knitting must be carried out by the machine to determine whether or not the set control data is correct or the desired knit state is achieved. For this reason, test knitting and correction of the set control data must be conducted a plurality of times before entering into mass-production. Thus, tedious work is required to set the final control data for the knitting machine.
A recording device of pattern information described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,608,642 displays stitches on a display screen, wherein the information instructing the knitting operation is inputted in the form of color codes. After that, the recording device prepares control procedure data for the knitting machine according to the color codes inputted. The recording device in U.S. Pat. No. 4,608,642, however, poses a problem in that it requires greater operator skill for setting the control data as the stitch structure becomes complicated.